Ryfast mega-project breakthroughs 27 Oct 2016

Two rock tunnel breakthroughs, achieved just days apart in Norway, mark milestones in progress on the world record breaking Ryfast mega-project.

Breakthrough on the 3.7km Eiganes Tunnel

A flurry of further breakthroughs are due in the coming weeks and months to complete the network of major drill+blast excavations in and around Stavanger on Norway’s southwest coast.

The Implenia/Stangeland JV achieved breakthrough on the first tube of the 3.7km long, twin tunnel Eiganes project (contract E04), which cuts large T9.5 profiles below the city at a shallow depth as part of the expanding west coast highway. The Eiganes project is due to be completed in late 2019.

Earlier this week contractor Kruse Smith/ Risa achieved breakthrough on the 5.5km long, twin tube Hundvåg Tunnel (contract E05), which branches out from Eiganes and the city and out towards islands at the edge of the fjord.

The Hundvåg Tunnel will link the E39 highway to the new 14.3km long Ryfylke (Solbakk) Tunnel which is currently being blasted below the fjord from opposite shores by contractors AF Gruppen from the west (contract E03), and by Swiss contractor Marti under contract E02 from the east (Fig 1). Together, the Hundvåg and Ryfylke tunnels form the record-breaking Ryfast road scheme, which, when completed in 2019, will be the world’s longest subsea road tunnel. The client is Statens Vegwesen, the Norwegian highways authority.

Breakthrough on the 5.5km Hundvåg Tunnel

Full scope of the Ryfast mega-project

The Ryfylke (Solbakk) subsea crossing will carry the Rv13 regional road, and tunnelling is expected to by completed around Q3-2017, shortly after the international tunnelling community comes to Norway for WTC2017.

The three road tunnel projects in and around Stavanger are due to be one of the key post-conference tours for WTC delegates, the other being to Oslo to see TBM drives for the Follo Line rail project. Farther up the west coast from Stavanger, the host city Bergen also has a major TBM bore underway the New Ulriken rail project.

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